It’s nice that New Year’s Day is Friday so this is a long weekend for most.  I sometimes get mixed up on what day of the week it is.  That happened yesterday.  Trudi, Bill and I were driving and we didn’t exactly know whether it was Thursday or Friday.  That was mildly embarrassing.   But, Trudi looked at her iWatch and finalized it as Thursday.  She had been pretty adamant on Friday up to that point, so at least I’m not the only one with day-of-the-week issues.

We went over to some friends house for an early dinner last night, then drove over to Lawrence to hang until midnight at Matt Gilhousen’s house.  Matt is the fearless leader of the TradeWind Cycling team, and TradeWind Energy company, plus a good friend.   Matt usually has these impromptu parties, usually with about a day’s notice.  He always goes big and it is super fun.

I tried to keep it low-key last night.  Did a pretty good job.  Didn’t overeat or drink much.  Got to bed by 2:30.

I rode 50 miles with Bill and Kris in the afternoon and felt just so/so.  We rode pretty hard.  I have pretty good power, just am having trouble accessing it. In reality, I am on the fence about even going to cross nationals.

I’m having a mental tug of war about whether it is what I really want to do.  The Northwoods are drawing on me.  There is snow in Cable, and in all truth, I’d rather just go up to Cable to ski and hang with my friends up there.   I don’t think I am going to get much personal satisfaction out of racing the Master’s race on Wednesday and then just leaving.   And I do have some overall body issues to work out and skiing, snowshoeing and such would help that immensely.  I still have a day or so to decide.

It is supposed to be over 40 again today, so hopefully we’ll get in a good ride again.

2016 is my house address.   Same address I’ve had since I was 14th.  So, I’m looking forward to a good year.  Hoping the same for y’all.

Dinner at Nan and Adam Gatewood’s was super. Nice informal New Year’s Eve gathering.

Matt’s house is crazy nice. He rebuilt an old “farm house” into a super modern creation.

His garage is nicer than most houses.

He had some big fireworks.

Brought in the New Year by a bonfire in his backyard. Perfect.

We did the 800 mile drive from Louisville to Cable yesterday.  It seemed long.  I’m not feeling all that good.  My thumb is a .5 on a 1 to 10 scale and my ribs are a 8.  Actually, if I cough or hiccup, it goes to a 15.  I somehow forgot how much ribs hurt.  Plus, the lack of sleep is killing me.  I think I’ll get used to that though.

I’ve had a bunch of time thinking about not racing.  I’m okay with it.  It would have just been a personal life experience, short term.  Wandering around the course on Wednesday, I had a few interactions that were way more memorable than the race ever could have been.

I am always surprised when people approach me and tell me their personal stories.  Real personal.  I’ve gotten much better at this, listening.  It used to make me pretty uncomfortable. And it seems, everyone has a story.  Maybe it’s an age deal, but it seems like a lot of people that are in the 40’s -50’s, have big life tragedies going on.  Parents dying, sick children, broken bones or illnesses.  And these things get them down, which is understandable.

A couple guys came up and thanked me for being so understanding, for personally taking time  to respond to them when they reached out.  That surprised me, how could you not return an email or phone call to “a stranger” that reached out?  And really, none of us, in this small community of cycling are really strangers to each other, even though most of us have never met each other.

I think people do a lot of this to try to cope with the shit that life throws at them.  I’ve found cycling to be very useful for lots of these issues.  Every once in a while, it seems, someone will see one of my public life experiences and relate to them.  For some reason, this eases their stresses, and gives them hope, or a vision to escape the mental turmoil.  It is a good thing.

People give me credit, when in reality, I don’t deserve any credit.  I’m just posting stuff I do, or feel, and some people feel something in common, which helps them deal with their situations. Sometimes I get a personal contact and I just tell them what I’d do or what I’ve done.  Seems to help sometimes, which is great.  Life sometimes throws unsolvable problems at us.  We just need a little time to figure out solutions, or how to deal with them, or just accept them.

Anyway, I ran into multiple guys, people that went out of their way and thank me for helping them out.  It is such a compliment and really is a lot better than racing a master’s race.  So, I’ve made my peace with it.  Kind of strange how it is turned around and these guys helped me deal with a problem that really didn’t have a solution.  Nice.  Thank you.

Plus, I got a chance to catch up with a ton of old friends I don’t see often enough. This is Bill Elliston. We have a ton in common, think alike in many regards. Super good guy.